Ruth Alice Emma Frankenberg (17 September 1957 – 22 April 2007) was a British–American social scientist and feminist, known for her pioneering work in the field of whiteness studies.
She was the daughter of Ronald Frankenberg (1929–2015), an anthropologist best known for his work Village on the Border, which demonstrated how anthropological methods could be appropriately applied to British society.
Mani is the author of Contentious Traditions, an analysis of widow burning in colonial India.
[6] Frankenberg highlights the difference between "race-cognizant" and "color-blinded" interviewees, stating that in order for participants to examine race they had to step outside of conventional norms and acknowledge difference, which was not considered acceptable by Liberal norms.
[6] In particular, Frankenberg examined the ways in which women belonging to the Ashkenazi Jewish community experience a sense of cultural belonging, but do not consider their Jewish faith to be classified a formal "race".